So what was the captain's reaction to learning that his three singles in Friday night's 8-3 win over Oakland had moved him past the Red Sox legend many regard as the greatest hitter ever on the all-time hits list? "I didn't even know. I had no idea," Jeter said after supplanting Ted Williams for 68th place all-time with 2,655 hits. "It's kind of hard to believe, I guess. But it feels good."

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Jeter stroked an RBI single to right for the Yanks' first run in the third inning and added an infield single in the seventh to catch Williams, whose .344 lifetime average ranks him fifth all-time.

Jeter surpassed the Splendid Splinter with another RBI single in the Yanks' four-run eighth, giving him a team-high 10 games with three or more hits this season. "(Jeter) is a great player. That's the easiest way to say it," Joe Girardi said. "He's consistent, he plays every day, he stays healthy and he works at it. He's a great player."

Jeter, now 35, said he cherished the opportunity to meet Williams, who died in 2002, at the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park.

"He liked to talk about hitting. I listened. I wasn't really talking too much, just listening," Jeter said. "I've just tried to be consistent year in and year out, and try to get a little bit better each year. When it's all said and done, you can talk about those things, but it's not something I'm thinking about coming to the field."

"He ain't gonna tell you now, but he's proud," longtime teammate Jorge Posada said of Jeter. "He knows what baseball is, and he knows the history of baseball. And I'll tell you what, he's proud.

"He wants to win ball games and do a lot of things, but when it's all said and done, he's proud of all these names he's passing by."

Jeter, whose batting average this season is up to .320, ranks second on the Yanks' all-time hit list - 66 behind Gehrig's total of 2,721. Today he is expected to move into a tie with Bernie Williams for fifth on the Yanks' all-time games-played list with 2,076.